Question:-War against terrorism and its different dimensions.

The bombing of a church in Islamabad and the suicide attack

upon the French technicians in Karachi dramatically testifies to
the al Qaeda presence in Pakistan . Their network extends
across 50-60 countries. Terrorist organizations are flourishing in
several other parts of the world. It would be impossible to
counter them unless the international community unites to
address this problem. Some immediacy is therefore required to
urgently address the draft comprehensive international
convention against terrorism placed before the United Nations;
hopefully the compromises needed for its adoption will not
eviscerate its basic content. The working document submitted
by India enjoins State Parties to include the causing of death or
serious bodily injury, and damage to State facilities, public
transportation systems, communication facilities or
infrastructure as criminal offences under their domestic laws,
irrespective of their purported political, ideological, ethnic or
religious nature. Significantly, if an aggrieved State Party makes
such a request, the State Party in which the suspect is residing
is obliged to weigh the evidence and prosecute offenders under
its domestic laws, unless it decides to extradite them in terms of
any prior agreement subsisting between two or more State
Parties.

It bears reiteration that a convention to tackle international

terrorism must be anchored on State Parties enacting domestic
legislation to deal with the criminal offences listed therein, with
additional provisions to either prosecute or extradite identified
offenders against whom a prima facie case is made out. Thus far
nations have not undertaken these seemingly non-controversial
measures. On the contrary, the aiding and abetment of cross-
border terrorism has become an instrument of foreign policy in
South Asia, despite the fact that these countries have suffered
grievous loss of lives and property due to terrorism – domestic,
cross-border and international. Aware of its threat to national
security, however, they had concluded the SAARC Regional
Convention on Suppression of Terrorism in August 1988, which
incorporated several of the general principles listed in a UN
General Assembly Resolution passed as far back as December
1985. The SAARC Convention established a mutually accepted
code for dealing with transnational political terrorism. But its
failure to achieve any tangible results over the years is traceable
to the lack of political will in the South Asian countries to act
either unilaterally or bilaterally or multilaterally, despite the
knowledge that cross-border terrorism can be greatly
exacerbated by external manipulation. Several of these
countries have yet to bring their domestic laws into conjunction
with the provisions of the Convention although more than a
decade has passed since it was adopted.

There are many other concrete steps that the South Asian
countries could take at the declaratory and substantive levels to
deal with the problem of terrorism in the region. This would
include: unequivocal condemnation of terrorist activities;
harmonization of domestic legislation dealing with terrorism;
intelligence-sharing by exchanging “look-out lists” of wanted
terrorists fleeing across national frontiers; and sharing
experience about anti-terrorist operations and techniques. The
recently concluded SAARC Summit declaration in Kathmandu
has pledged them to fight terrorism “in all its forms and
manifestations including by increased cooperation and full
implementation of the relevant international conventions relating
to terrorism”, and “to prevent and suppress the financing of
terrorist acts by criminalizing the collections of funds for such
acts and refraining from organizing, instigating, assisting or
participating in terrorist acts in States or acquiescing in
organized activities within its territory directed towards the
commission of such acts”. These pious declarations will remain
empty rhetoric unless credible steps are taken by the SAARC
countries to implement them.